((No worries, whenever you can start is fine))

Alex walked through the rainsoaked streets, every now and then looking behind her shoulder. Always keeping a watchful eye out for any suspicious characters. It wasn't paranoia, she was just being cautious. The rain began to pour down even heavier and Alex sped up her pace to get home and out of the torrential downpour.

Finally managing to make it to her apartment, Alex pulled her keychain out of her pocket and turning it in the lock and rushing inside. Pulling the hood of her sweashirt down she shook her head in an effort to get rid of the drips in her hair. She caught her reflection in the hallway mirror out of the corner of her eye.
"Waterproof?" she muttered to herself "Yeah right" she walked into the modest sitting room and flopped down on the sofa and turned on the tv. The news droned on in the background. Nothing but death, war and disease. But it was a welcome distraction and Alex felt her eyes growing heavy. Feeling herself drift off into a heavy doze.

"Don't ever raise suspicion. Stay in the shadows and above all else, do NOT trust anyone" the voice inside Alex's dreams was stern but caring.
"Be careful, I may not always be here to protect you"

"Selene!" Alex shouted as she jolted out of her sleep. Sitting upright, she put her head in her hands. She had to put a stop to all this running.

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Name: Addie Windsor
Age: 20
Jumper/Human/Paladin: Human
Appearance: Blonde hair, wavy. Green eyes. Fair skin.
Personality: Very insecure in herself, but hides in a sheild of acting secure.
History: Her mother died from her abuse husband. Then, from not having his wife, he turned to abuse Olive. This lasted until Olive got pregant. Then, fearing for the life of her baby, she ran away from home and tried to take up a new life under the name Addie Windsor.
Misc: Two jobs are a simple shop-n-mart cashier and a waitress at a mom and pop restraunt. Her small town has only one small movie theater, in order to understand the size, and her dreams are to get a college education in beauty and fashion.

Name: Nathan Windsor
Age: 4 1/2
Jumper/Human/Paladin: Jumper, unknown.
Appearance: Blonde hair. Brown eyes. fair face.
Personality: Likes to run. Is a typical four year old.
History: Was born.
Misc: Addie's Son.

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Addie's eyes were tearing up with her hand was covered in sweat. She had her elbow planted on the table. Her head was leaning limply on her hand, and she was wedged down in the chair while talking on the phone.

"You don't understand!" she began to scream, but dramatically lowered the tone of her voice once she remembered Nathan was sleeping in the other room. "I can't. I just can't. I want to have the payment in with all of my heart, but keeping food on the table with a hungry 4 year old. I mean, you have children don't you? You understand."

Addie paused for a moment and left a small reign of awkward silence between her and the landlord on the other end, and she then began another phase of her rant to the landlord, "I have two minimum wage paying jobs. With the prices going up and my son getting older, I just need some more time. I promise I will get the payment into you."

By this time, Addie was in full blown tears, and her hand was trailing over to grasp ahold of a tissue.

"Ms Windsor," the voice on the other end calmly stated, "I really do need the money. You have done this for five months, and I really do hope you understand my side of the situation. I just want to know when my payments will reach me."

"I am trying sir; I am really trying."

"I believe you are. I just think you should probably take up a more economical residence. Please just consider what I am saying. That is all I ask."

With that, the landlord hung up the phone, and Addie lay the phone down, collasping her head into her crossed arms in tears with worries of what the future would bring clouding her mind.

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[So sad, Smeag.]


"Excuse me ma'am. Ma'am?"

Lacey kept walking, a little bit faster. The pudgy man in the flowered t-shirt started after her, binoculars threatening to strangle his sunburned neck. His equally round wife stayed behind, snapping a camera like she was bound and determined to capture every single moment of her tourist life.

"Sorry to bother you, but we're lost. Can you point us toward the um....Honey, what was that building we're lookin' for?"

"The leaning tower of Pizza." The wife's voice was high and nasally. She snapped her gum like a period at the end of the sentence.

"Right. Well?"

The black-clad girl kept her eyes straight ahead and walked on, pretending the flower-patterned people didn't exist. It wasn't too hard; she'd done it countless times throughout her life. Eventually they gave up, she supposed, but by the time she rounded the next corner their faces were red, flowery blurs. She looked around, careful to make sure no one would be watching when she Jumped. Not that Italians cared much. Lasciate esso sia, let it be. But still...too many risks.

When the coast was clear, she closed her eyes and felt the whoosh as she landed in her small apartment in Barcelona. It was out of the way, a small building crammed between two others that looked almost exactly the same, save for a few mismatched bricks and windowflowers. Her personal space had no furniture, only books stacked everywhere there was space. She bent to examine the stack beside her when the paper stopped fluttering, plucking out a thick novel she hadn't read in a while. It was cooler in Barcelona than it was in Pisa, a comfortable breeze drifting lazily through the single window and around the room, carrying the scent of baking bread in its fingers. She opened the novel to the first page and headed down for a walk.

Ha, I noticed that absolutely NO ONE is a Paladin, and I love being the villian, so I'm just going to give the heads up that I'll be joining soon.

I would join now...but I still haven't seen the movie. Anyway, just giving you the heads up that there will be a Paladin here eventually.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

(Oooh, that'll be nice, Tar. And nice beginning, Smeag. Aliana's right, that was sad.)

The next five minutes that Jack experienced could easily be defined as a giant blur. As soon as the Paladin slowly passed him, Jack lunged forward, tackling his body into the brick wall. As the Paladin struggled to recover, Jack kicked away his gun and slashed at him. Unfortunately, the Paladin dodged it and took out a knife of his own. He stabbed at Jack, well, actually the space Jack had once occupied, because he was now right behind the Paladin. Before he could stab him, though, the Paladin pulled a electroshock baton and swung it. Jack backstepped a foot before attacking again with the knife.

The Paladin was a novice. Not the ones they send chasing after Jumpers. The ones that they used to stand guard in a city and call whenever they encountered a Jumper. They definitely weren't the type that could confront a renegade Jumper. Let alone a Jumper who had spend four years in various terrorist organizations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa. Finally the Paladin slipped up and dropped his guard after Jack made to swing his knife, only to Jump behind him and kick him behind the knee. He grabbed his left hand that was holding the baton and Jumped fifty feet above the Arctic Ocean.

"Bye!" called Jack tauntingly as he dropped the bewildered and soon-to-be-dead Paladin into the freezing salty abyss below. As gravity slowly brought Jack down, he Jumped back to the alley in Barcelona and sighed.

"Bloody amateur," he said to himself before walking out of it like nothing had happened.

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I was cured all right.

(I just want to know where the main action will be, because my character will not be able to jump to and from it, and this is the first depressing character I have ever played.. like really depressing. So, it is going to be one fun new experience.)

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(So far, my and Aliana's character is in Barcelona, Spain. I'm not sure where Phoenix's character is..)

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I was cured all right.

[Force of habit. =P I always put my character where I know someone else is in my first post. Makes it move along quicker.]

((Alex is in Detroit))

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Lacey was only a chapter into her book when she heard the scuffle a few feet away, in the alley she'd walked by a thousand times on walks. Muggings in Barcelona were few and far between, but she'd seen a couple before and preferred to avoid them. Unfortunately, her feet decided not to listen to logic and continued forward towards the gap between two buildings. In her head, Lacey told them firmly to turn her around and take her back to the apartment, but they continued to blatantly disobey her. Curiosity killed the cat, she said to herself when the alley was only a foot away and within easy reach. She pressed her back to the wall so as not to be seen, her calm mask still in place as it always was. She supposed her actions looked casual, nonchalant, and hoped that she wouldn't draw attention to herself. Good thing I don't have whiskers.

She felt the scar left behind from the Jump rather than saw it. In the first bewildered second she thought she had accidentally Jumped somewhere else. One quick glance around disproved that theory, though; she was still in the same place, still pressed against the wall with her heart pounding all too loudly in her head.

Another Jumper? That's what the Paladin had called her, the one time she had been careless leaving a trip to a small town in Estonia. It was an appropriate term, much better than trying to call herself normal for all the years before that. But another one? She had been sure the Paladins were after her and her alone, that they were always just one step behind but entirely focused on her capture and death. Despite her possibly very dangerous situation, Lacey breathed a sigh of relief.

Then of course someone came out of the alley, dashing whatever previous thought of escape she'd come up with. Before she could stop herself and prevent the inevitable difficulties, she spoke aloud in her Italian-accented harsh voice, slightly scratchy from underuse.

"Are you insane?" Too late, she remembered where she was and repeated the question in Spanish, both sentences ending abruptly, like they'd been chopped off at the question mark.

The streets of Grosse Point were close to deserted with only a few pairs of lights shining this way and that at this hour of the night. Nathan was asleep in the back of the car, and Addie was hustling through a map, trying to find the way to her grandmother's house while continously thanking the lord that the streets were not filled with travelers, tourists, and businessmen of the nearby Detroit alike.

"Ok, this way," Addie spoke aloud to herself and gently turned the vehicle into another dirt road to keep Nathan from waking.

Her lights beamed on, and she continued to drive for another half a mile, counting house numbers, until she finally reached 405 Voletmont Ave.

Her grandmother's house was not a work of art, but it was on the water. After her husband died, around five years past, Addie's grandmother could not dream of selling the house, too many memories. Her husband was buried in the backyard, with a trail of ivy strolling the tombstone, and his fishing boat was still coarsely tied to the dock. His bed still made, and his clothes still in the closet. If you had not known Addie's grandmother, you would believe she had a hard time letting go, but, that was not the case. She had accepted that her husband died a good 3 years past, but, from her dear love of memiors, she decided to keep everything in prime condition.

tap-tap-tap

Addie knocked on the door, with Nathan sleeping and laying over her left shoulder. "Hey my dear!" Addie's grandmother, Natalie (but everybody calls her Rose from a rather intriging story dealing with her ex-husband), warmly greeted Addie, "I was going to call, but you weren't at home, so I just sat here wondering where you were. Oh! I will show you a nice comfy spot for him." Muma Rose said with only a charm that a grandmother could have as she ran off to hustle a little bed together for Nathan.

Muma Rose had not caught up to technology, and everything in her house could be considered an antique, with a story behind every item. The phone, in particular, she was referring to was what she used to call her first husband with. It was the gift of the century to her, but, now, the circle dialing mechanism is a little outdated.

"It is right over this way," Muma Rose motioned Addie to the other room, covered in a striped wallpaper with considerbly old and used teddy bears scattered about. Once Addie placed Nathan down in the bed, she followed Rose out into the living room, where Rose had a cup of cocoa waiting and a fire bristling in the fire place.

"You know," Rose began to say, as if Addie had been living there for a decade already, "It has been quite bitter in the temperature this year...."

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"Are you insane? ¿Es usted insano?"

Jack turned around to find a Italian girl asking him if he was insane. Well, maybe he was, but that wasn't the point. Due to his experiences, he almost ignored the value of human life, especially when they were so scared of him. But, then again, she wasn't too bad looking. There was a chance that he could "convince" her otherwise. However, he had more urgent business to attend to so he simply said, "Importe de su propio negocio" in a rather curt and dismissive voice.

He walked away, not knowing or caring if she understood her or not. He went to a discrete location, making sure no one saw him, including that Italian bird, and then Jumped to his lair in Spain. Well, actually one of his lair in the Mediterranean. The other was in Italy. Inside wasn't much. Just a mattress on the floor. A rack of weaponry hung on the hall next to a small shelf of books. Right next to the shelf of books was a desk that housed a computer that he used to track Paladins. Next to the keyboard was a list of names. Names that Jack hunted and killed. One name in particular was Roland Cox, crossed out. One name that he managed to beat Griffin to.

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I was cured all right.

Roy straightened his jacket from the Jump, and stepped out from the alley into the sun of rush-hour Toronto. The Paladin who had tracked him to Dublin was now trapped in a peat bog, to be discovered in another hundred years, he reckoned, kicking the muck off his boots. He stepped onto the sidewalk, only to be shouldered aside by a pair of punks with gold in thier teeth. Muttering a few words on the decline of society, he stepped into a small Timmy's and ordered a double-double, taking a table by the window when it arrived. Cars and pedestrians rolled by, oblivious to the world, to the young man observing them. Finishing his coffee with a grimace, he tossed the cup into the trash and stepped out, andjusting the pistol and kinge hidden in his jacket. He checked his watch. It was 3:32, October 12th. Back home, he'd have been getting ready to go out for a second round of deer hunting with the boys, but now he was in Toronto, where the fool beurecrats made laws that hampered Hunters at every turn. 'Course, only those who hunted animals, anyway. He thought as he Jumped to London, to see an old friend.

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Son of Bellatrix

Banner by Pandora

[Heya Tur]

Lacey was a bit taken aback by the other Jumper's behavior. No, that was an understatement. It took her a few minutes to recover from the shock and, even then, a few precious seconds to go after him. She was dressed in black, just a simple long-sleeved blouse and jeans, but like most Italians she dressed for fashion rather than usefulness. Still, she tried to be quiet following the man, crouching behind buildings whenever he looked over his shoulder. Mind your own business, he'd said. Well, if this man was like her, then he was her business.

Her inner cat not yet sated, she followed him until he stopped. She knew that look. It was the same look she knew herself to have whenever she was making sure that no one would be watching her Jump. Indecisive for one second too long, she darted forward as he disappeared, one hand outstretched to grab the air.

"No, wait-"

Not even a moment later she was sitting on the floor of what was apparently the man's lair. Or, one of them anyways. She sat still, not even breathing. He hadn't noticed her yet, lucky for her, so she tried desperately to process what had happened. She hadn't grabbed onto him, sure was sure of that. But still, there she was, and there he was, and they were both...she couldn't tell where they were. She could go back, just ignore and forget about the last fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes, had it really only been that long? The seconds dragged.

But if she went home, he could follow her the same way she'd followed him here. No, much as she put herself in dangerous situations, it would be torture to see someone land on all of her books without a care in the world. Maybe she could Jump over the river Nile and hope he follows. She smirked to herself in thought, coming up with more genius plans for the other Jumper's demise.

It had only been a few seconds, but her need for oxygen brought her back from her malicious fantasies. Slowly she took a silent breath and stood as quietly as she could. She faced his back, hands on her hips in what she thought was a strong pose and her chin tilted slightly upwards as she waited for him to notice her.

Jack was flipping through a folder when the Italian girl went through his Jump scar and landed in his lair. He turned around swiftly, pulled out his dagger, and pointed it at her, asking, "Che cosa state facendo qui?*" He glared at her, wondering if she was a Paladin spy and decided to ask that as well. "Siete una spia?** Huh?"

Jack would have said she was a bloody tourist who stumbled here by accidentally, but from her strong, cold stance she was assuming and the hard stare she had, she wasn't an average tourist. He still held the dagger forward, trying to predict her next move.

*What are you doing here?
**Are you a spy?

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I was cured all right.

[Work later and then my last night before leaving tomorrow morning. I'll read and post whenever I can!]

Don't panic.

Lacey had had knives pointed at her before and gotten out just fine. But it was an obvious mistake to follow the man. She evaluated her situation as quickly as her mind could process it. Obviously she couldn't avoid speaking or get an appendage hacked off by an angry Jumper. It was a bit alarming to have to speak and, worst of all, explain, because she knew that things in her little bubble were much, much different than the outside world.

"No eres un español*. Speak English if you want."

Short and to the point. It was easier to concentrate if she said things that way.

Stepping away from the dagger a step, she crossed her arms over her chest. She carried no weapons with her, ever, but if she was going to be killed she would rather it be standing rather than sitting on the floor, accepting her fate.

"If I were a spy, you would not see me." Again the sentence cut off, like she was forcing the words out one by one, though they flowed in the same way most Italians spoke. "You killed a Paladin. I have no reason to spy on you."


* You are not Spanish